Prayer 101: Experiencing The Heart Of God by Warren Wiersbe

Author:Warren Wiersbe [Wiersbe, Warren]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: how to pray to God, God help me, How to Pray, God answers prayers, conversations with God, power of prayer, daily prayer, why pray
Publisher: David C. Cook
Published: 2016-06-01T07:00:00+00:00

17

Your Relationships with Others Define Your Prayers

It’s impossible to be out of fellowship with other people and at the same time enjoy satisfying fellowship with God. Paul wrote, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” (Rom. 12:18).

Surely this begins in the home.

Peter’s counsel to husbands and wives in 1 Peter 3:1–7 ends with “Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers” (3:7). Peter assumed that Christian husbands and wives prayed together and wanted God to answer their prayers, so he warned them about marital disagreements.

But it isn’t only in the home that we put up obstacles to God’s blessing. We can have bad relationships with people in the church as well. “And when you stand praying,” said Jesus, “if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins” (Mark 11:25). This admonition ties in with the fifth petition in the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matt. 6:12). Paul wrote, “I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing” (1 Tim. 2:8).

Back in the ’60s, I was scheduled to conduct a three-day Bible conference at a church that was about a two-hour drive from the church I was then pastoring. When I arrived on Monday evening for the first service in the series, I was shocked to learn that the pastor had resigned without warning the day before and that leaders in the divided congregation were starting to blame each other. What a great way to begin a Bible conference! I’d planned to preach a message on the three “wash” statements in Scripture: “Wash me” (Ps. 51:7), “Wash … yourselves” (Isa. 1:16), and “Wash one another” (see John 13:14). It appeared that the church needed that very message.

At the close of the sermon, I said, “Perhaps some of us here need God’s cleansing and also need to cleanse ourselves. Maybe we need to apologize and wash somebody’s feet. If you want to meet me here at the front, then come, and we’ll pray together. But maybe you need to walk across this sanctuary and talk to somebody else before you come down here to talk to the Lord.” We began to sing a quiet hymn of consecration, and the people began to move. I had never seen anything like it as people hurried to embrace their friends and seek forgiveness for things they had said and done.

We closed with a prayer-and-praise meeting, and the Lord healed wounds and filled hearts with love. But our praying would have been futile had the confession and cleansing not come first. Personal conflicts in the home and in the church are serious obstacles to answered prayer, and they must be dealt with.

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